


The Professor Avengers

by Lilliianna



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-18
Updated: 2015-05-19
Packaged: 2018-02-17 20:45:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2322602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilliianna/pseuds/Lilliianna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Did you ever think the Avengers were the only ones with exceptional abilities?</p><p>When people on Shield's Avengers 'rejects' list start disappearing, followed by a string of supernatural crime, it is up to the Avengers to find and recruit the remaining rejects, before time runs out and the mysterious mastermind gets his revenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Thor Thunders In

Chapter 1 – Thor Thunders In

Professor Lillianna Lindellii was lost in thought as she walked through the spacious hallway of Rochester Institute of Technology. She had spent the whole summer in the Big Apple engaged in a battle of wits with her friend Nigel as they sorted through the notes on last year's 'accident'. However, the night before their friendly banter had turned bitter when Lillianna had brought up the recurring subject of Nigel moving upstate. She relished the time they spent together but loathed the big city. She couldn't understand why Nigel couldn't move upstate where things were nice and quiet and simple. It wasn't like there would be any problem for him to get a job; all he would have to do was put in for a transfer. It wasn't as if the University of New York didn't have any campuses upstate. She stopped for a moment noticing a picture of last spring's graduation hanging on the wall. She had lost so many of her students to that graduation, and as it always depressed her reminiscing about the past, she continued toward her office, cheering herself up by thinking of all the new students she would meet this week as classes started.

After sitting down behind her large, sparsely furnished desk, Lillianna picked up her beginning of the year memos. First, she skimmed the headlines of the New York Times that had been left on her desk. The only interesting thing was that a large branch of the bank with which she was a stock holding member had been held up then bombed in New York City shortly after she had left the morning before. Second was a message from the dean. The first page was rather generic informing her of a couple policy changes, none of which applied to her. However, the second page covered the topic of her new university hired secretary, which she would share with the quirky old math professor whose office was adjacent to her own. It also told her that the dean would be stopping by latter that day to discuss several matters with her. Next was a note from her new secretary. It contained a short introductory paragraph about its author and several reminders about schedules and grant renewals and other such 'trivial' matters. Attached were attendance roles with each of the students' names being followed by the grades they had received in previous of her courses. Lillianna scanned the list until she found the names she was looking for. Daniel extremely smart but she just had to find some way to make him actually pay attention and stop fooling around… Garrett, she sighed, how many times was he going to waste his money on that chemistry class he didn't even try to pass... Once she had finished going over the names she looked down to see the next set of letters. One from Shield, another from the CIA, and a few more from various other government organizations; without even opening one of them, she swept them all into the brightly polished chrome waste bin next to her desk. She turned on her I-pad and started to reorganize this semester's course plan. Though try as she might Lillianna could not focus on being a teacher. She closed the file and opened one that contained an, as yet, unproved theory by the college's weirdest, craziest and oldest mathematics professor ever, the same professor with whom she now shared a secretary. She had been just dying to wrap her mind around the problem all summer but had forgotten her I-Pad when she left for New York City.

Just as she had gotten the concept embedded into her brain, and was ready to start scribbling possible proofs, she heard the one sound she hated more than anything else in the world. Someone was knocking on her office door. A split second before she barked at whoever it was to go away she remembered the dean's note, substituted a "One Moment" instead. She scrambled to make it look like she had actually been working so the dean wouldn't catch her fooling around, then opened the door to find not the aged, balding dean but a young buxom blond with a slime so wide Lillianna couldn't be annoyed by her interruption.

"Hello Professor Lindellii, I'm Cindy your new secretary, I just stopped in to introduce myself and to make sure you received my note."

"Hello Cindy, considering we'll probably be seeing a lot of each other over the next semester, and the fact that 'Professor Lindellii is such a mouthful, why don't you just call me Lilly. And yes, I did get your memo. You made such neat and organized lists out of all the stuff I usually just throw in a pile and take the first week of school going through, if I hadn't read a note from the dean informing me of your new job, I might have thought a magic farie had visited my office over the summer. Thank you ever so much."

"No! Thank you professor – I mean Lilly, it's always nice to know I've done my job well. I'm sure you're awful busy so I'll let you get back to work. It was very nice meeting you, good bye."

"The feelings mutual," she replied as she closed the door stepping back into her office. Though really Lillianna wouldn't have cared if she had never met her secretary, and certainly wasn't fond of a girl who somehow managed to dress professionally and yet still show more cleavage that a lingerie model, and had a voice that sounded like it was coming over the self service register at Wal-mart saying "Thank you for shopping at Wal-mart." Lillianna tried once more to focus on this year's courses but before long succumbed to the desire to work out that math problem. Once again, just as she started writing the noise, which she deemed evil, broke through her concentration. This time though she was prepared she simply minimized the math file and spread the class schedule sheets out on her desk as she walked around to open the door. This time rather than the dean she found a girl whose tiny frame was weighed down with books and papers. Her hair was flurried and her glasses balanced precariously at the end of her nose. When she spoke, it was with a severe stutter.

"H-h-hello, I'm one of y-y-your n-n-new students. M-my computer is i-i-in th-th-the shop, s-so I couldn't g-get a s-s-supply list. I I was w-wondering i-if you could g-give me one n-n-now."

"Sure, um," Lillianna started not sure whether the girl was embarrassed by her own lack of preparedness; something which annoyed Lillianna, or whether she was frightened of something; which annoyed Lillianna even more as she knew for a fact she didn't have a reputation of meanness. "Just come on in. I'll see if I can find one." After a minute of half hearted searching, Lillianna printed off a supply list and sent the girl on her way.

This time she didn't even try to be treachery before starting back in on the math problem. She was about halfway through her first try at a proof when there came one short knock from the direction of her door. She tried to ignore it but it came again louder and in the rhythm of shave and a haircut. She went through the same 'look as if I'm working routine as last time before reluctantly opening the door. Again, as she had a feeling it would turn out, it wasn't the dean. This time it was one of her former students, one whom she had been strongly tempted to throw out of her class on several occasions.

"Hey, I was hoping you were in. I was just walking by, and I was wondering if maybe you and I could…" by now, Lillianna had stopped listening. All she could do was attempt to keep herself from strangling the tall lanky chemistry major that went out of his way to flirt with her at every opportunity. Finally managing to fully regain her composure, she interrupted his continuous ramble with.

"How many times am I going to have to tell you? I do not socialize with any students. I'm here if you have academic problems and an advisor to some students who just need someone to sit and pretend to listen to their life drama. I don't care that there is such a small age gap between us that doesn't mean you have any sort of chance in convincing me to go out with you." As she finished this sentence, she closed the door on him and went back around to her desk. She had just crumpled her failed first attempt at proving the old math professors problem when she heard again her least favorite of all sounds.

"GO AWAY!" she screamed throwing the crumpled proof at the door before pulling out a new sheet of paper. To her surprise and annoyance, she heard her office door open.

She looked up hoping it wasn't actually the dean this time but to her horror saw instead Thor standing just inside her doorway.

"Where can I find Professor Lindelllii?"

"Your staring right at her and whatever you want she's not interested. Unless of course it is an apology from shield for harassing me, then of course its apology accepted. Either way you can leave now."

"This is no joke I need to speak with the professor. You can't be him."

"Alright if you're going to be that way about it. I don't know my own identity, do you know yours?" Thor spent just a moment looking offended before he started a full-fledged interrogation.

"Where were you yesterday morning?" He continued without giving her time to answer, "Do you have anyone who can confirm that? What do you have against Rakewood Bank?" He would have continued if Lillianna hadn't cut him off.

"Who do you think you are coming in here and treating me like a criminal? You don't even have authority to arrest me if I had done something. If you must know, yesterday morning by the time of the bombing, I'm assuming that's what I'm being accused of; I was well on my way from New York City to here. And you can confirm that with Nigel Nicholby whose house I left around 5 am. Now GET OUT!" As she said this, she had already mentally picked up the large rock she kept hidden under her desk for just such occasions. She had had to force many people out of her office since the accident. Thor, doubting that a twenty some odd year old nerd could do him much harm, opened his mouth to continue speaking but even before any sound could escape, a skull sized rock came flying towards his face. He had just brought his arms up to block when the rock changed flight paths and collided so forcefully with his shoulder that it turned him 180 degrees.

"I SAID GET OUT!" A solid sheet of condensed air slammed into his back pushing him the two steps more needed for Lillianna to slam the door, which she didn't hesitate in doing.

Lillianna had always hated the first day of classes. Each year she looked forward to the diversity of the students, with their new faces, new ideas, and new questions, but the first day was always the same and she hated It because she didn't have to go through it just once like her students, she had to go through procedures iron out rules and everything else over and over again. This year looked as if it would be no different until towards the end of her first class when she turned around as always to write on the remarkably clean blackboard.

"You know it is hard to imagine you a senior professor, I've been told most people don't get one PhD before 30 let alone two of them. You can't be that old." Lillianna whirled around; ready to punish whatever loose-tongued student had made the comment, but instead saw Thor standing behind the last row of desks. Every one of her students had done the same, eager to see the man who had the nerve to say something like that to the school wide teaching idol, only to find a Norse God the culprit.

"I thought I already kicked you out of my office, what makes you think I will be any more inclined to listen to whatever idiotic proposal you have when you are interrupting my class?" She finished writing the assignment completely ignoring the Norse god in the back of her classroom.

"This is a matter of urgency –"

"Class dismissed. If you have any questions about the assignment my school email and office hours are on the paper I gave you at the beginning of class." Lillianna gathered her things and ignored Thor as her students filled almost silently out of the room. Thor heard some of what was whispered and realized that no one had been rooting for him.

"We need your help."

"First you harass me, now you expect me to help you? You crack me up. I don't care if you're an Avenger, let alone a Norse god. Whatever it is no. that is what I told the Press, moviemakers, FBI, CIA and president. NO."

"Your story checked out and we need help."

"Do you mean 'we' as in Shield, the Asgardians or the Avengers? If the first talk to the Avengers; if the second again talk to the Avengers; if the third talk to your supposed boss Furry. In any event leave me alone."

"Do you care so little about your race that you would deny them your aid?"

"They don't need my aid. They elected a government to protect them. And if the government can't, the head of the UN can always pick up his little red phone and call Shield."

"There is someone recruiting people like you – "

"Why are you still – wait did you say there are more people like me?"

"Yes, and someone is recruiting them. We need your help to stop him."

"Wait so I get it. Shield is racing someone to see who can collect the most 'abnormal' people. If the someone else wins, I'm guessing he is going to conquer earth right? Just another Power hungry moron like your brother was. I have friends in the Big Apple that still haven't gotten over that."

"It is not yet certain what he intends to do"

"I'll tell you one thing that is certain. I'm not going to have anything to do with you people. Not for all the toys in Stark Tower" Just then Thor had to doge the solid sheet of compressed air Lillianna had thrown at him.

"I am not here to fight you." The next projectile was blocked by his hammer: which Lillianna hadn't noticed being there before.

"Then why did you bring that?" Lillianna aimed her next shot at the hand, which held the hammer succeeding in knocking it out of his hand. It cracked the wood floor where it fell.

Thor ducked behind the desks and rolled to the other side of the room narrowly missing being hit by: a stone globe, microscopes, books and just about every heavy object in the room. He called his hammer and sent several lightning bolts at the professors head which she nimbly dodged. Lillianna parried with the now scorched blackboard that shattered as it hit Thor's hammer. She started to form large sheets of air as she continued to doge the lightning bolts coming from the ceiling. Then without warning, she threw them all at once at Thor knocking him several steps backwards toward the door. He ran several steps to the opposite side of the room but was met by another wall of solid air. Lillianna slowly pushed Thor towards the door using the same method.

"GET OUT AND DON'T COME BACK!" was the last thing Thor bruised both body and pride heard before the door slammed in his face.


	2. Mysterious

"What in the world happened to your classroom!?" The dean was yelling as he walked without knocking into Lillianna's office only a few minutes after she had.

"It wasn't my fault Thor was a lot harder to force out that the average spy." Lillianna had hoped for time to come up with a way to explain things that wouldn't make her sound hallucinogenic but to her relief the dean took what she said at face value believing every word.

"Thor? What did he want?"

"Well earlier when he came into my office, he accused me of terrorism, but then after apparently checking my alibi, he interrupted my class to ask for my help."

"And you didn't agree to help him."

"No! I've told you I'm not a hero, I don't do things like that. I would also appreciate if you would stop giving out my office phone number too; I've had to unplug it there have been so many calls from people needing a hero."

"When are you going to start listening? You are supposed to be a genius but god are you dense. You're wasting your life. You have this amazing gift and you could be doing so much good with it, but instead you're cooped up in here. If I could do what you could, even old as I am, I would be out of here, reporting for duty before you could say superhero."

"That just shows how unhappy you are with your life. I love it here I have everything I've ever wanted. I—"

"You're happy? You have no family, no friends, a boyfriend that wont leave the city for you. You spend your life lying to yourself. You say your happy but your not. Ask any of the other professors, even some of your students, it's obvious, you're the only one who can't see it." He turned and stormed out of her office, slamming the door behind him.

Shortly after he left, the phone on Lillianna's desk (which she thought she had unplugged) rang just as she sat down. Surprised she picked it up.

"Hello?"

"How would you like no one to bother you ever again?" a cool deep voice rolled out of the receiver.

"Who are you? How did you get this number?"

"I hear you put up a good fight for Thor. How would you like to join me? I could make all your wildest dreams come true. You could be Dean, if you wanted, own your own University. All you would have to do is play my little game. It's quite simple really; there is only one rule. The Avengers lose."

"I'm not interested" she hung up before the mysterious voice could object. Then she leaned down to unplug the phone to find it already was unplugged. She grabbed her coat turned and left. She had had enough excitement for one day. The next few days passed without incident. Most of her students knew not to ask questions, and the ones that did not learned quickly.


	3. The Tower

It was exactly one week since Lillianna had met Thor and had all her problems thrown in her face by the dean, and she was just barely calmed down. She was sitting like she had been then behind her desk getting ready for another day of school and letting herself get distracted by that math problem she still hadn't solved. All of a sudden her secretary ran in the room, without knocking holding out a newspaper.

"You need to see this" she said as she threw the paper on her desk and ran back out. Lillianna picked up the paper as it had landed and read an article about a government conspiracy and how there had been more attacks like the one on the bank the week before, and how the government was keeping it all hushed up because super humans had been involved. She examined the accompanying picture to see a blond girl with huge fairy wings dropping a man from five hundred feet in the air. The caption read

"After last year's alien invasion it would seem a few people are jealous they don't have their finger in the pie of the governments blind eye."

While the article had been interesting and exactly why she didn't want to be a super hero, she didn't see why it had been so urgent that she read it. Then she turned over the paper and saw that it hadn't been the article she was supposed to read.

University of New York Bombed

The New York City campus of the University of New York was bomed yesterday morning. The bomb was planted in the university's largest lecture hall, and upon detonating seriously injured over seventy-five students and killed fifty people including the much adored Junior Professor Nigel Nicholby…

Lillianna had had plenty of time to think on her drive from the Rochester Institute of Technology to New York City. She had not wanted to be mixed up in all this nonsense but whoever that voice had been, had just murdered not only her boyfriend but also forty-nine of his students. She couldn't pretend not to care.

The front door to Stark Tower opened almost before she finished knocking.

"Hello?" There wasn't a soul to be seen but nevertheless there was a response.

"Please state your name and business?"

"My name is Professor Lindellii. I was wondering if I could talk to one of the Avengers…" She still hadn't entered the building. However, upon an elevator door opening across the hall she rushed through the door and went to press for the top floor. There weren't any buttons! Lillianna didn't even notice that the elevator had moved until the door opened and she found herself standing behind one of the two Avengers she had actually been worried about meeting, Tony Stark. Who at the moment was attempting to concentrate on the screen in front of him.

"I thought you weren't interested in my toys."

"I'm not. I…"

"Changed your mind and decided to help us."

"Sort of"

"There is no sort of, you help or you don't"

"Alright I'm in, but –"

"But what? What happened last week? Thor didn't want to say much. Everything we know came from the tape recording device In Thor's pocket and it sounded like the roof was falling in." Stark, who still hadn't turned to look at Lillianna, walked over to something that looked like it might one day grow up into one of his suits. Lillianna couldn't help thinking that he was just as much of a jerk in person as he was on television. She realized that she had dealt with worse and decided to have some fun.

"Have you ever wondered what would happen if you could move a molecule with just a thought?" Lillianna coolly replied, as she mentally lifted the entire suit Stark was working on.

"What the -" He finally turned around to look at her and had to resist the urge to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. "How old did you say you were?"

"Twenty-five, and I'm not interested."

"You could change your mind?" Lillianna slapped him in the back of the head with a screwdriver.

"You wouldn't even get close enough for me to shove you away." She set down his suit and walked over to an uncomfortable but expensive looking chair that had obviously seen little to no use. She lifted it and changed the shape into something resembling a recliner, before setting it down again where she could see both Stark and the door.

"Satisfied?" Her eyes began to wander. "I wonder which one of these screens I could get some straight answers from?" Upon seeing one of Stark's hand held devices, she called it over and began to open and close various windows.

"Don't touch that! You'll break it! You don't know how to use one of those!"

"Stark it's a touch screen, voice activated link to an intelligent computer system, which I must say is rumored to have a marvelous personality. I don't think it is going to break that easily, besides you can always make another one; or use one of the others you already have made." Stark mumbled something under his breath and went back to his work. Meanwhile Lillianna read through the list of rejected avengers and was glad to see that she didn't know a single name on it, besides her own of course.

"Stark! We really need to talk." Natasha Romanov stepped out of the elevator and without noticing Lillianna walked around to the front of Stark. "We are all out there trying to find and recruit agents before that physco can; and you're up here fooling around –"she noticed Lillianna "with a woman at that"

"First of all there is no fooling around going on between him and me. Second of all, he is helping. He supplied a place for me to come; otherwise I never would have been able to find you people."

"Who are you?" Natasha walked over to where Lillianna had stood up.

"My name is Professor Lillianna Lindellii, but you can call me Lilly. I will admit though, he could do more to help."

"Wait –" Both girls proceeded to ignore him.

"I think I'm going to like you Lilly. Would you like to come meet the rest of the team?"

"I thought you'd never ask" Lilly teased as she and Natasha headed towards the elevator.

When the elevator opened Lillianna saw Thor leaning against the wall, arms crossed, looking as though he wanted to start up a storm. Banner was seated on a couch using a computer just like the one she had so recently pocketed. Barton was leaned back in the chair farthest from the elevator plugged into an I pod; while Rogers was reading a book.

"Back so soon? I thought you -" Thor stopped short when he saw Lillianna.

"Stark has been useful after all. If he hadn't stayed no one would have been here to let in our guest.

"She wouldn't need letting in. She could have broke the door down" he mumbled as he trudged to the other side of the room, against the traffic of the others coming to meet the first recruit they hadn't been beaten to.

"So we know she's a telekinetic but to what extent?" The question was directed at Natasha but to save her the embarrassment of not knowing Lillianna answered.

"I can move anything from a molecule to – "she stopped and more to herself than the others, "well I don't really know I've never tried to see how big something would have to be before I couldn't move it. Anyway – Isn't anyone going to offer me a seat?" At that moment, everyone was lifted into the air and moved to clear a walkway. Lillianna walked over to the couch where Banner had been listening from and sat down next to him before setting the stunned avengers back on the floor.

"Hello Bruce, if I may call you that …"

"Go ahead, but I'll need something to call you."

"Call me Lilly. I must say it is quite an honor to finally meet you; I have always admired your work."

"Lately it seems everybody does—"

"But not the way I do. You may not know but I have two PhDs and if I had time would go for a third in radiology. Knowledge is my all consuming passion."

"What are you so busy with, besides us of course?"

"Research! I am still working on writing out the book in which I prove that thoughts have mass. A word of advice Bruce, don't ever write a book! Oh wait that advice is a little late for you, sorry. Though your book was superb I picked it up in the university library a couple years back for some light reading." At this, everyone listening to the conversation raised his or her eyebrows. "You wouldn't consider writing mine for me, would you? I'd pay well."

"How do you know thoughts have mass?"Banner queried avoiding a commitment to writing her book for her.

"Well last year my friend Nigel and I did an experiment. We were trying to weigh thoughts –"

"—so you would have used an amplifier to – "

"And then later there were –"

"but wouldn't they –"

"Apparently not"

"And so the whole –"

"Yeap"

"I'm lost. Did you catch any of that Rogers?"

"Nope I don't think they are thinking in English. I'm as lost as you are Clint."

"It sounds like the only reason Lilly is telekinetic is because she did an experiment on herself."

"Well that makes three guinea pigs." Stark had walked in at the tail of the conversation. "I have a location for another Reject. Two actually. Who wants to go get them.


	4. Packing Power with the locals

Lillianna had always felt uncomfortable around weapons and didn't even know how to use a gun. Unfortunately, after she had beat Thor up, the avengers had decided to bring their weapons along on their recruitment trips. Natasha's gun was pretty discreet if you discounted the fact that it clashed with her very stylish outfit, however it was pretty hard to hide the high tech bow and quiver that Clint had over his shoulder. They had made it through airport security easily enough, all Natasha had to do was show her shield badge and they would get anything they wanted, but now, after an hour's bus ride they were in the middle of nowhere. The official name of the town was Treville, but if it hadn't been surrounded by trees, Lillianna would have sworn that she had passed through a time machine into the old days of Tombstone. None of the buildings had numbers and people where just lounging around many of whom sported old style gun holsters or had double barrel rifles leaning on the wall behind them. She could see a group of men looking towards them and talking amongst themselves.

"How are we supposed to find them?" Lillianna said trying not to let her discomfort show in her voice.

"We'll simply ask directions." As Natasha said this she started walking towards the group Lillianna had seen watching them. When they had gotten closer they could hear some of the conversation.

"City folk, pssht, pro'ly can't even use a real gun. Deys got dem fancy weapons dey do."

"Yeah, hey dey's headin' this way. Why don we show 'em how we do thing roun' 'ere." Natasha stopped right in front of the two of them.

"Could you tell me where I can find Edgar and Fredrick Waslar?"

"Perfec' opportunity Joey," He said to his friend before addressing Natasha. "Tell ya what. De ain't gonna be in the shop righ' now but we'll tell ya how ta get ter their 'ouse. But first ya's got to show us how good a shot ya are. How good ya shoot determines how good yar directions are." Natasha pulled out her gun but before she could ask for a target Joey interrupted.

"Not wid that. That aint no kind o weapon. Ya's got to make de shot wid a real gun." With that he handed her his sawed off shot gun. Natasha by now annoyed took the weapon and turned to scan the town for a good target.

"You see the sigh hanging down from out front of the general store?" Natasha directed the question at the rednecks who nodded. Lillianna watched as Natasha brought the gun up not seeming to take the time to aim and fired. The bullet had broke off the chain on one side and the weight of the sign swinging down broke the chain on the other side. As the sign hit the ground in front of the door the rednecks turned to stare at Natasha.

"I'll be. Ya hit it."

Twenty minutes later Clint, Natasha and Lilly had been led through town and had started through the woods, frequently checking their compasses to make sure they were going the right way. All of a sudden Lillianna was knocked to the ground from a small blast to her right where she had thrown a stick that had been in her way.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah what was that?"

"It sounded like a land mine."

"These two must be paranoid or something, living way out here in the woods with land mines surrounding their house." Suddenly there was a loud cracking noise and Clint pulled Lillianna out of the way just as a tree fell right where she had been standing. Natasha and Clint walked ahead watching for more mines and any other sort of bobby trap while Lilly walked behind trying to step exactly where they stepped so she wouldn't set off any they missed. Soon they came up on an old shack that looked as though it might fall down at any moment.

"There must be an underground bunker of some sort. These guys must be good."

"Let's just hope we're the first ones to find them." Cint said as he knocked on the door. The door opened but all they saw was, a skin colored object disappear at the end of the hall.

"What in all creation was that?" Lilly jumped back nearly five feet.

"Let's go see" Natasha took a cautious step into the shack, before its owner appeared rounding the corner.

"Whach ya waiting for, Freddie? Ya should be on the cou - Oh. Sorry I'z 'specting my brother – Well make yurselves at home. Name's Eddie. Ya know, I feel I should recognize the two o' ya."

"They are Avengers. Ring a bell?" They all made their way through a door to the left and found two dilapidated couches and what might have at one point been a church pipe organ. The mess nearly drove Lilly crazy for want to clean it up.

"Oh Yeah ya mus' be the Black Widow and Hawkeye But who's the extra?" Before Lilly could answer, Natasha cut in.

"Chaos."

"Nice, who made that one up?"

"Group effort. We were hoping to talk to you and your brother. It's a matter of some importance."

"I tol' 'im the gov'ment would send somebody after us. Tol' 'im to quit evadin' 'is taxes. Tol' 'im it ain't legal ta send that stuff to them Make A Wish people. Tol' 'im –"

"As interesting as this confession is, we aren't here to arrest you."

"Ya Ain't? Well I'll be. He gunna get way after all."

"Where is your brother?"

"I Dunno. Left just a few minutes ago. Said he'd right back. Forgot 'is keys, he did. That's why I 'uz 'spectin him when you knocked.

Thud thud thud came the knock on the door.

"Tha'd be 'im now" as he said this, his arm seemed to stretch, and just kept stretching. 'Chaos' watched in shock as the hand at the end of an arm three times longer than any arm should have the right to stretch opened the door to the hall and continued to stretch! Only moments later, a man walked into the room if you could call it a man. He looked as though he were made of jello. Freddie noticed all three Avengers staring at the two of them.

"They come fer us Eddie! By golly I shoulda listened when isa had the chance. " He fell to his knees "Don take 'im he aint don notin' take me I'm da one ya want." His voice sounded as though it was cracking but without the deep tone in between the crack. Just the cracks.

"Freddie. They aint takin' nuther o' us away. So quit yer caterwaulin'."

"They aint? I tol' ya they wasn't gonna sen' nobody down 'ere, I did. Wha' they want?" Natasha seriously considered telling them she had got the wrong address, thought someone else lived here, anything to leave, but decided not to.

"We wanted your help with something."

"They wan' our help Eddie! The Avengers wan' our help!" Lilly cringed, they would regret this she knew it.

"Wit' what?"

"Can we explain that at the tower?"

"Sure"

"Ya aint tryin' ta trick us now. Get us in a car with no fight then cart us of to the big 'uose?"

"No"

"Then I'm in too Eddie."

###############

"Eddie get a load o' this place. Huge it is. Clean too. Wonder 'ow he manages it? Pro'ly don't sleep"

"Freddie Shush Ain't polite saying things like that, we's guests, we is." They both procedded to walk around the room looking at things.

" These them?" Lillianna couldn't quite read Thor's face as he said it, but from his tone she could tell he was just about as thrilled as she was.

"Yeah"

"Well, what can they do?"

"I'm not entirely positive about Freddie, but it looks like Eddie can stretch himself out to extreme lengths."

"Freddie," he turned around as if he had just been caught doing something illegal.

"I didn't touch nufthin' I didn't."

"What exactly can you do?"

"Well, I's Eddie's assistant. Bes' mechanics 'round we is." He said it like you would expect someone to say they had just won an Olympic gold medal, not how someone says they fix cars.

"No, not that, I mean what can you do that is unique to you like your brother stretches, for instance?"

"Oh that, why didn't ya say so the first time? I bounce, an' I can spread myself like jelly, I's can. See" At this he started getting thinner until he looked like someone had made Jello on a cookie sheet. Stark walked up from behind him and put a hand right through his stomach, taking it out again immediately, then laughing

"He feels just like Jello too"


	5. Clean up tomorrow?

Lillanna had to resist the urge to kiss the ground of the room she had just entered; it was past midnight and she was finally alone. No genius playboy, obnoxious rednecks, superspies, Norse god, or super soldier. She started thinking about her day, mentally cataloging everyone she had met. There were only two people she regretted leaving. They were Bruce Banner, her childhood hero, who was somehow exactly as she had imagined him; genius, modest, nice, somewhat quiet and slightly reserved, but what else could you expect, he had to keep himself from turning into a giant green rage monster. The other was Natasha, she felt sorry for her being the only girl Avenger. They had made friends right off, probably because they both subconsciously realized they should stick together being the only girls, but who cared, they were friends. Tony Stark however was another matter entirely. Genius though he was, he was completely full of himself; she had had students like that. They went through friends quick. Not that she had expected anything more, she had seen him on the news, it showed. Thor had actively avoided her all day, and she could see a large bruise on his arm, obviously received being kicked out of her classroom, he probably had a grudge, but two could play that game. She hadn't seen much of Steve Rodgers, she figured he was still trying to adjust to the twenty first century, they had come a long way since he got trapped in ice, she made a mental note to get to know him. Clint Barton had come with her and Natasha to recruit the rednecks but had barely said anything the entire time, she would have to get him talking too, when she had the chance. The amount of math he would have to subconsciously do in the split second it took to soot an arrow that would make perfect shooting possible, it was amazing and he probably didn't even realize he was doing it. Thinking of the rednecks, they had been so disappointed they had expected pre-established x spies by the circumstantial evidence, why hadn't Natasha just left when the three of them had had the chance, these two were going to be useless, completely and utterly useless.

"Don't tell me Stark doesn't believe in clocks." Lilly sat back on the bed and groaned. She felt lost when she didn't know what time it was, and she couldn't remember where she had left her watch the night before. Besides, she had an eerie feeling that she had way overslept, and the day would be a waste because of it.

"9:05 AM" She had forgotten about Jarvis, the omnipresent, practically omnipotent computer system that kept Stark Tower running smoothly.

"Well, well, I guess I'll never be alone while I'm in the tower." Nearly four hours later, (after finding her watch, going out to her favorite New York breakfast place, and having another 'not interested' argument with Stark)

Lilly found herself in the same room where she had first met the rest of the team. Though this time, she was sitting on a couch across from two rednecks, manipulating her pocket computer. They were all waiting for Clint and Natasha to come back from checking on another reject. Alarm systems started buzzing deafeningly yet they could still hear Jarvis over the dim.

"Security breach on the top level. Ten intruders nine unarmed yet sporting exceptional capabilities" Lilly jumped from her seat and was in the elevator even before the twins had finished looking at each other.

She arrived on the top floor to find Banner already hulked out attacking a man whose body merely stretched in conformity with Banners fists causing Banner to merely destroy the tower. Thor was calling up lightning against an opponent that merely threw it back at him. A thin winged blond girl was lounged in the cockpit of a large helicopter out on Stark's landing deck. Stark flew in, in one of his suits and started shooting at a man who completely ignored Stark and seemed to simply absorb the energy from anything that hit him. Two men one obviously albino sporting a white suit and the other a African wearing clothing that only made his skin look darker, were respectively freezing and frying all the technology in the room. Steve was attempting to battle a comical character who vaguely reminded Lilly of the comic book hero Batman, yet without the outfit. Stepping out of the helicopter was a tall ancient looking woman with a scepter sending off strange lights that demolished anything they touched. There was also a human shaped blurr that was leaving a burn mark trail wherever it went, and tripping whoever it came near including Lilly. It took only a moment for Lilly to take in the situation and come to a decision as to her next step before she heard a voice in her head, as she stood up.

"Impresive aren't they?" Lilly looked around but couldn't figure out where the voice was coming from. The faces of their attackers were all grim or taunting the vain attacks of the avengers. "You could have counted yourself among them. But you choose to stand alone, And that's how you'll be when I'm done. I'll take everything you ever had, or ever will, your friends first, then it will be discovered that you cheated your way through college, your degree your …" Lilly finally located the speaker a decrepit old man in the back of the chopper. She got ready to manipulate the air around him trying to suffocate him, get him out of her head. Suddenly, before she had moved a single particle, she felt a sharp pain in her head and fell to the ground.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the voice taunted in her ear.

"But I would." Lilly thought as she struggled against her throbbing mind to banish all air from the chopper.

When she awoke it was to Clint picking her up from the rubble of Stark towers new 'roof'. What she saw was Stark inserting a new energy chip into his arc reactor; Banner sitting on a chunk of concrete starring at his surroundings; Natasha helping a very bruised and battered Rogers; Thor looking as though he had just been through some Asgardian War; Eddie with his limbs frozen stretched out three feet too far; and Freddie trying to gather up pieces of his jelly self that had obviously been melted off.

"What time is it? What happened? Who were those people? How in the world did that guy…"

"Whoa take it easy. One question at a time. It's nearly seven, and I think you can answer the rest of those questions better that Natasha and I can."

Shortly after, all medical needs had been cared for, Clint and Natasha had been filled in on the intrusion, Lilly had created a sketchy picture of Mr. Vendetta, and been filled in on the rest of the battle.

"Well, what do you say we call it a day folks?" Lilly yawned, "Clean up tomorrow?"


	6. Fourth Floor From the Top

Lilly woke up starving, in all the excitement yesterday no one had thought of eating. She got up and dressed before attempting to look at her watch and found it missing from her wrist.

"5 am."

"Good morning Jarvis! Thank you. Do you know where I left my watch yesterday?"

"It was badly damaged yesterday and you left it in one of the labs so you could repair it."

"Thank you. Question number 2. Where can I get some food? I'm famished"

Lilliianna stepped of the elevator after retrieving her watch from one of Tony's smaller labs. She had expected Tony' s personal lab to be a fancy elaborate affair, the man was an egotistical self centered know-it-all billionaire after all.

Lilly entered an elaborately decorated kitchen, obviously the work of Pepper Pots, co-designer of Stark tower.

"Where is everyone? This place is quiet as the grave."

"You are the only one currently awake. Correction there is someone awake in Ms. Romanov's room. I can not verify it is her as she has disabled all but my motion detectors, through various means of sabbatoge." Lilly had just started cooking her omelet when she heard the door open.

"Good morning Natasha. Do you want an omelet?" there was a half stifled yawn before the reply.

" 'morning? I didn't think any one else was up." Natasha said as she took a seat on one of the bar stools encircling the large island, sweeping her short hair up into a bun. "Yes, an omelet sounds great, if its not to much trouble."

"Not at all."

"Are you always this cheerful in the morning" Lilly looked over to gauge the spy's sarcasm level, and saw the tell-tale glow of an arc reactor through the frosted glass of the kitchen door. She quickly turned back to the counter, cracking more eggs into a bowl.

"Until something bad happens" The door opened "Like that." Natasha turned around just in time to see Tony, in nothing but a worn looking pair of pajama bottoms, still rubbing sleep out of his eyes, step into the room.

"What smells good?"

"Cheese omelets, for Natasha and I, only. Unless you ask really really nice."

"What's wrong with her?" he sat down at the bar next to Natasha.

"I really don't think she likes you. She was genuinely happy a minute ago." Tony jumped as a plate floated right in front of him and settled gently on the counter in front of Natasha, followed by a fork, which Tony had to dodge as it made a half hearted attempt at stabbing him.

"Did you see that?! She tried to kill me!"

"Tony if I really wanted to kill you I wouldn't stab you with a fork. I would simply move the shrapnel in your chest." Lilly commented nonchalantly, with a wave of her wrist as the fork settled onto the edge of Natasha's plate. Both Natasha's and Tony's eyes widened, no longer paying attention to the errant piece of silverware, but staring at Lillianna, who was still standing over the stove.

"You could do that?"

"I don't see why I couldn't, but I can think of several reasons why I wouldn't. And even a few reasons why I shouldn't even try and see if I can, the main one being what if I can." Tony was the first to recover from the shock that he was in a room with someone who could kill him very easily.

"What if you could? Theoretically you could remove… " he trailed off thinking of the possibilities, but was cut short by Lilly's reply.

"In order to do that I would have to know exactly where each individual little piece is, along with the location of every single piece of tissue in your body in relation to those pieces. That of course is impossible, even with all the scanners you have upstairs. Otherwise I could tear out half your insides. You would be worse off than you are now."

"Did you just think up all that up now or were thinking about me - ?" There was a hint of a flirt in his voice. "Wait how do you now about all the stuff in my personal lab."

"I was looking for a watch battery, and Jarvis wasn't as helpful as I thought he would be."

"What did you ask him?"

"My exact words were 'Jarvis where are the batteries?' and I ended up in a lab full of Iron man suits and strange looking machinery. Which Jarvis was more than happy to identify for me." Tony just scowled, venomously mumbling "Traitor.", before he was hit in the back of the head by a dish holding the eggs that Lilly had said she wasn't making him.

"You Know Natasha hitting him is really fun. You should try it sometime."

"I'll keep it in mind" Natasha smirked, as Lilly sat down on the opposite side of the island of Natasha and Stark.

"OK, so I was doing some research earlier, and it seems that this guy whoever he is must have the same list as you if he beats you to every name on the list so I think I may have found a name he wont -"

"How long have you been up?!" Tony screeched.

"Since 5. So anyway—"

"Five?!"

"Yes, you know the hour that comes after 4 and before 6. But—"

"Yes I know what you mean. Why in the world would you get up at five?"

" 'Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.' Yeah just kidding. Actually most schools start early and I never really quit going to school so I just always get up early. Besides look at all I've got done and you're still in your pajamas." Natasha burst out laughing, and Tony just stared. "As I was saying. I might have found a name our mysterious jerk doesn't have. There is just one catch though."

"What?" Natasha's voice was a bit apprehensive.

"I can't get an exact location –"

"That's not so bad, we'll just—" You could see Tony's plan (blasting into the area and giving some big recruitment sales pitch) starting to form in his mind already.

"There's more."

"Oh?" Natasha said one delicate eyebrow raising in question.

"I cant get an exact location because he is in a terrorist compound -"

"WHAT!" the door opened, to reveal Steve.

"What in the world is all the yelling about?"

"She is crazy! I'm not having a terrorist in this tower! You're Crazy!" He yelled jabbing a finger at Lilly across the countertop.

"He isn't a terrorist he is a prisoner according to his profile, last updated by the Japanese government." Clint walked in.

"Hold on a second. What's all the commotion? Who's not a terrorist?"

"I have a feeling that if I answer any more questions now I will repeat myself more times than I would like to count, so let's waits for Bruce, Thor and the twins to wake up. The breakfast dishes floated across the room and after rinsing themselves off loaded themselves into the dishwasher.

"When everyone is up and dressed," she looked pointedly at Tony, "you can find me on fourth floor from the top researching." Lilly waltzed out of the room with her hand held computer for a partner.

"I thought you forgot me. I've been set up up here for eons." She turned to see all the Avengers plus two file into the room. Lilly got up from where she had been sitting and rearranged the screens she had pulled closer to the couch to review. "have a seat, come on we don't have all day."

" So wha' zactly is goinn' on 'ere."

"Yeah alls we heard wuz sum'thin' bout ter'rists." Lilly sighed, as everyone else sat down.

"So Furry told you about a person recruiting rejected Avengers and causing havoc. You thought it would be a good idea to do some of your own recruiting, in order to fight him. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Fury gave you the list of names on the index, and the other person has beat you to all but three of the names you've tried so far - "

"That's common knowledge to all of us. Can we get on with it." Thor grumbled.

"Well if you have so much more important things to attended to why don't you just run off to Asgard and take care of them. Any other unnecessary comments?" The venom in her voice called for a collective no, which she received. "As I was saying, it appears that this guy is going by the same list as us."

"That's brilliant why didn't I think of that!" Banner had interrupted this time, "but the index contains the names of everyone with any kind of special abilities. So—" Lilly cleared her throat loudly, silencing Banner.

"Everyone Shield knows about. I, however, think I've found someone not on the list."

"Then what are we waiting for? Lets go get him."

"It's not that simple. Look here, " She enlarged one of the screens on which was a map. "That big black space is a terrorist compound, they have somehow blocked themselves from satellite view. Not even NASA can see them."

"How do you know that?"

"Because the picture you are looking at is being streamed from NASA's secret threat monitoring system itself. I hacked it earlier. Back to the picture. The red circle right in the center of the black indicates the location of our man as closely as I can get it."

"What are the colored camps surrounding the compound."

"Each color represents a different government organization. Blue is Shield; Green, Japan; White Russia; Purple, Italy. The other colors are more political camps than actual stakeouts the various governments just want to be able to say they are there, to look good you know."

"So let me get this straight, in order to get this guy we would have to get by various government stakeouts, and a group of terrorists. Is he worth it?"

"His name is Norio Inoue." Lilly pulled over another screen, ignoring the question. And expanded it so that the everyone could see the picture of a non descript Japanese man. "He used to be a Japanese spy, until he went missing only to resurface giving information of a powerful terrorist group to his superiors, then resign from service. Only months later his house was invaded and a ransom note left. The terms of his release were for Japan to call off it's stakeout, and give them supplies, weapons and money. They didn't obviously, but instead went public with the terrorists information. The Italians have managed to infiltrate the organization and their man on the inside has confirmed that Norio is alive."

"How can this Norio help us?"

"When he returned to Japan, he had developed an extreme fear of being higher than two stories off the ground, but at the same time applied for admission to a school of aeronautics. He is hiding something. Something the terrorists know but no one else. Seriously if you want to ransom someone you don't ransom a former spy. You don't even ransom an active spy; you ransom a dignitary or something. On the other side if Japan knew they would have paid up, they obviously think he is a retired spy nothing more."

"So on the off chance that he is hiding a super ability, from his own government mind you, you want us to spring him from a highly organized terrorist compound while the compound is being staked out by more than one military."

"Yeah or would that be to hard for you Clint"

"Na sounds fun."

"Well call it cap, you've got rank." This attempt at humor elicited a chuckle from most of the group, and an exasperated sigh from Steve.

"Clint and Natasha, you can organize the mission. Lilly, Banner and Stark will help gather info. The rest of us will help when the mission starts." At the mention of his name, Stark looked up from reading the screen, and started paying attention.

"Wait don' ya all work fer the gov'ment? Can't ya jus get us flown in wid a bunch o soldiers?"

"He's right we could ask Fury to get us clearance through the Shield camps."

"You really think Fury would just let us waltz in there? It says here that shield has been monitoring this organization for three years, and still haven't dared risk going in. It was Italy that sent in someone undercover." Stark sniped.

"So back to plan A? Sneak past the camps and into the compound." Clint said with barely restrained glee.

"Yeah." the glint in Natasha's eyes nearly rivaled Clint's. Lilly could easily tell that the two had been missing real spy work since New York.


	7. Norio

Several days later Lily found herself creeping though the dense forest, between the camps and terrorists, that was 'No Man's Land'. To her supreme dismay her partner in this exploit was none other than Tony Stark. Thankfully, she had convinced him not to wear his suit and just to carry a briefcase one in case things went bad. But nothing was going to go bad. Nothing was going to go bad.

"The whole point of carrying the suit instead of wearing it was to be quiet. With all the noise you're making I'm surprised we haven't been seen by now."

"So what if someone sees us? There's noth—"

"So what! So What! Look there is not a soul on this planet that wouldn't recognize you on sight and we're not supposed to be here." Lily thought of a few of her favorite expletives, and heard Tony mutter some others. "SHHHHHHHHHH!" there were a few moments of silence and then Lilly saw something move to her right. "get down there's someone coming." Both Lilly and Tony (a bit more noisily) dropped to the ground, seconds before bullets rang through where their heads had been only moments before. Next thing she knew Tony was in suit aiming an energy blast in the direction of fire.

"Stop" though saying so had been unnecessary since she had already mentally tackled him and pinned his arms. "What if they're SHIELD or one of our allies? You know how bad It would look if YOU shot them?"

"They're shooting at us." He gestured with his newly released arm in the direction of the shots, which were still whizzing above their heads.

"I'll deal with it, stay here." and before he could protest she stood up and started walking calmly in the direction of the fire. He could see bullets falling to the ground in front of her before she passed out of sight.

Lilly dodged from tree to tree. When an unnoticed bullet had come deceivingly close to her shoulder leaving a small cut she had learned only to try to stop bullets when it was unavoidable. Suddenly she caught sight of the shooters; they were just setting down their guns and discussing whether to go see whom they had shot. She recognized their gear as standard CIA, and regretted not letting Tony blast them. She had always considered CIA agents extremely stuck up. However, she had to settle for knocking them both over the head with each other's guns so it would look like they got in a fight. When she returned to collect Tony, he wasn't there.

After looking around several minutes, Lilly simultaneously felt something knock her to the ground, and both heard and felt a land mine go off. Moments later she was on her feet only to find her savior had been none other than her missing companion.

"Tony?"

"They're moving in on the compound. We're going to have to blast our way through."

"Great" Lilly reached for her communicator only to find it gone. "Get in touch with the others." Tony obliged and soon had a response.

"They have all got caught in crossfire were going to have to go for the guy without backup."

" well now feel free to walk in front and blast your way through like you wanted." Lilly sarcastically said before piking up a large stick, then levitating it and by extension herself so that she wouldn't set off any more mines.

"Ya know Freddie wha' happn's if somef'ing goes bad out there? Dey's gonna need 'elp wont dey."

"Ya think we should make some o dem melon bom's like we used to set of back in de wood? Cover our 'scape ya know."

"Yeah but we's a don' got no melons."

"We could use some o them holloed logs layin about"

"Ya's a genius Eddie!"

Lilly had long since abandoned her "flying" mode of transportation, as her arms got tiered of the continuous pull-up, and had merely started walking in Tony's shadow. Tony had blasted a smallish hole in the compound wall and they had crept through various halls until finding a control room, where they could get a map.

"ah Tony could you hurry up with that? What ever they are banging this door with is pretty strong, and I'm not sure I can hold them back with just the atoms I have on hand."

"I'm almost done just one more…. There come on. Into the vent." Lilly stopped reconstructing the door and disappeared through the air vent in the ceiling behind Tony; just as the door broke. What the terrorists found was an empty room perfectly sealed with everything just as it should have been. Except for one solitary computer screen blinking:

9:57

9:56

9:55

Lilly crawled quickly behind Tony following his lead to the jailers quarters in the compound.

"So how much time did you give us?"

"Ten minutes."

"What?! Are you crazy? You better start crawling a bit faster up there."

"Were fine if my calculations are right, which they always are, we will have the guy in front of us in five minutes and be out of range with at least two minutes to spare."

"Yeah that's if we don't run into any problems." They continued in silence until Tony suddenly stopped and punched though the bottom of the vent.

"Back up"

"Why?"

"We went too far we're over the cell now." Lilly obliged and a few feet behind where she had just been Tony punched another hole in the vent, and dropped through. Lilly followed, landing right on top of him but bouncing back to her feet so fast that the guard who had drawn a gun didn't even see her before he was hit over the head and his keys were flinched.

"Who are you people?" sounded a deep Japanese accent from a nearby cell.

"Don't worry were here to help, Mr. Inoue." Lilly strung together in perfect Japanese. The lock on his cell door clicked open and a bedraggled man limped out. "Told you we'd run into a problem." Lilly Scoffed reverting to English. "How is he supposed to crawl through the vents with a limp? How much time we have left?"

"Five minutes just like I promised."

"Remind me to skin you alive if we ever get back to the tower." As she mumbled this, Lilly reached out to support their newest recruit gesturing for Tony to scout ahead.

"This way." Tony led them through a maze of passage ways, thankfully, none of which were occupied. However when they crawled out of a freshly made hole in the wall they found themselves directly behind terrorists lines shooting towards shield agents.

"Shhhh. Folow me." Lilly whispered as she transferred her cargo to Tony and started creeping along the wall in the direction of the van. "Get on the comm. Tell everybody to clear out, and get to the van."

"يا منعهم السجين الهرب."

"We've been spotted, Run! Tony get on the comms, tell the twins to start the engine, and tell everyone else to get their guns, and bow, ready. Were trailing terrorists" Lilly formed a block of air in front of her to push away the branches as she and Tony, now carrying Inoue, ran through. Suddenly behind them the whole compound started exploding, sending flying debris far enough as to land in front of them.

"Two minutes to spare huh? Come on it'll distract them for a moment, the vans just ahead." They crossed out into a demolished section of forest, and were finally in view of the van, and could see everyone else had made it back all right.

"Hey the twins say not to step on any logs with green paint on them."

"OK you fly the rest of the way, don't risk it. I'll be careful." Tony launched into the air, and Lilly started threading her way carefully through the dead branches going as fast as she could. She felt an arrow whiz by her arm and turned to see it hit its target only ten feet behind her, and as it's victim fell there was an explosion from the log he had landed on.

Lilly started running, keeping an eye out for the mines, and jumping over them whenever she came to one. Behind her she could hear the terrorists tripping, and feel the heat of the explosions. Only yards from the van she closed her eyes, and bit her lip to keep from screaming. She had been prepared for anything, she had thought. Then she tripped, over what she never knew because at that moment terrified of being blown to bits, she fainted.


	8. I Can Walk

When Lilly woke up she found herself back in Stark Tower, in her own little room. Everything seemed fine, except for her splitting headache and the bandages on her left ankle.

"Good morning" Norio Inoue said as he walked into the room on crutches.

"How's your leg? How long have I been out?" Lilly queried in Japanese as she forced herself to a sitting position against the protest of every muscle in her body.

"Well they tell me it's broken, but worse has happened to me. How are you? That was a nasty fall, if that man, Clint I think his name is, but anyway if he didn't have such fast reflexes you would have been nothing more than stew meat. You needn't continue speaking Japanese I am a spy and served my share of missions in English speaking countries. Oh and you've been unconscious just under twenty-four hours." He said in a flawless New Yorker accent.

"Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad one" Lilly teased, relaxing. "So was I right, and do the others know?"

"If you are referring to my newly acquired and useless flying capabilities, then the answer to question one is yes. However, I have refused to speak to anyone about the reason for my breakout until I could speak with you.

"Why"

"How did you figure it out? I never told a soul, not even my girlfriend back in Tokyo."

"It wasn't too hard. Spy retires in his prime, because of a phobia for heights, but applies to learn to fly and design planes. What sense does that make. Ransoming a former spy makes even less sense. You had to have some secret; flight was just a hunch of mine. How'd it happen anyway?"

"I don't know. All I know is how I found out. I was confronting one of the terrorists on the roof of a skyscraper and well, lost my footing. Three inches from the pavement I stopped short, in a standing position. It was only later that I realized I would not have survived the wind resistance on the way down unless something were slowing me. But why did you all go through so much trouble to rescue me?"

"Well partially because I thought it would be fun doing the whole hero bit but mostly because we need your help. Help me up and we'll go see the rest of the group and they-" Clint had walked in at the tail end of the last sentence.

"You're not going anywhere."

"Why not, I'm fine."

"If you were fine you wouldn't need help up would you."

"I don't. You just watch I'll get up on my own and walk upstairs. All by my self." Lilly pushed herself up more with her mind than her hands but when she tried to set herself back on the ground, she only met with the pain of an ankle unable to hold her weight. As she fell both spies (one dropping his crutches and balancing on one foot) reached out and caught her. "I could get used to this. Two attractive spies carrying me around, yeah." Both looked at her with matching raised eyebrows. "I'm just kidding. Jeez, can't you take a joke. Well are you going to let go of me so I can sit back down or are we going to stand here all day?" After being set back down and mentally giving Norio back his crutches, Lilly scowled at Clint. "So what did you come down here for?"

"Well Jarvis informed the rest of us you were awake so I came down to see how you were, inform you as to the nature of your injuries, and see if you wanted anything, like some coffee maybe. Stark says that your ankle was sprained. You have quite a few bad bruises and a nasty burn on your shoulder, where you narrowly missed being blown up. Stark also says you should try to rest as much as possible."

"Since when does Stark have a medical degree? Don't say that he is keeping himself alive, all he does is keep a magnetic field generated in his chest. I can get up if I want to. Please just get me some Tylenol for my head, and I'll take you up on that offer of coffee."

"I can see why Thor didn't like you at first." Lilly looked skeptically at him. "It's your way or the highway, and well he doesn't like that idea. I'll be right back. Come on Norio I'll show you where the others are on the way."


	9. Fankids

Three hours later Lilly found herself in a spacious room Natasha and Clint were on the couch beside her, Norio was standing in a corner as far away from the windows as possible, Stark, Banner and Thor were seated in lounge chairs around the room, and Rogers was addressing them attempting to form a plan.

"… everyone on this list is either here or working with this man." The screen displayed a computer generated drawing of Lilly's description of the telepath. Lilly was only partially paying attention, she was too busy thinking about the day before. However when Jarvis announced a visitor, her mind was jerked back to reality.

"What are you guys doing up here? You promised the mayor you'd be at the assembly and it starts in five minutes!" Stark jumped out of his chair.

"I completely for —" he was interrupted by Natasha.

"We are sort of dealing with an emergency, I'm sure that the mayor can manage without us"

"We promised him weeks ago. It's a publicity thing, the crowd is going to be huge. We can't just not show up. Besides we could all use a break." The sensible voice of Steve said, "Not that I want to go any more than you guys."

"No Tony promised" Natasha snapped. "were getting tiered of you doing this Stark."

"Well we might as well go, its not like were getting anywhere with this." Lillianna sighed as she pushed her holo-screens away from her.

"See even the absent minded professor agrees with me." Tony beamed.

"Yeah, thats progress I thought she hated your guts." Banner teased batting a holo-screen at each of them.

"In your dreams boys. I'm just tiered of him arguing with everything I say and lording his status over me." Here Lillianna did a mock pose and mimicked Tony saying "I am Iron Man. I'm a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist and thats my holo-screen your using so be nice." once again turning serious Lillianna flung a holo-screen at Tony's head. Tony flinched as she said,"and next time you call me something other than my name, I'll aim somewhere a bit more tender." Lillianna started limping toward the door and just before it closed behind her she turned and said "See you in the garage" with a wink as she teasingly dangled the keys to one of Tony's nicer cars from her fingertips, causing Tony to run after her only to have every door he came to slammed in his face, and inoperable until Lilly was well out of range.

The two matching black vans carrying the now ten Avengers pulled up near the big crowed outside the city hall. While back at the tower Lillianna had taken charge of things, here everything was on Tony. This is a publicity stunt and playing crowds was Tony's specialty.

Tony was first out of the vans shooting up and flying over the crowd distracting them from the less exciting emergence of the rest of the New York team. Lillianna and Norio hadn't been in the battle of New York so they blended themselves into the crowd as best as they could, before Tony could pull some crazy stunt on them. A star-spangled Steve put on his best acting face and ran up to the stage with Tony. Thor following Tony's lead, flew to the stage with his hammer. The two uniformed shield agents walked much more sedately through the crowd taking in everything and planning escape routes, out of sheer habit. Banner walked behind them trying not to make eye contact with anyone and looking as if he was a nervous wreck. The twins beamed excitedly from the drivers seats of the identical black vans and for a moment, as Lillianna looked back, she thought she was seeing double.

The twins took off and Lillianna focused on the crowd, searching for Mystery or any of his goons when she was satisfied that none were in the crowd, she hobbled towards a group of protesters who still wanted the Avengers to pay for all the damage they had done in the battle. She planned on staying on hand just in case she was needed for crowd control but when she arrived, what she saw horrified her. A group of children who obviously snuck off from their parents were all dressed to match the six avengers on stage and a group of teenagers from the crowd of protesters had cornered them and we're throwing rocks and pieces of glass at them.

Reacting before thinking Lillianna condensed the air in front of them to form shield before scurrying up to the children.

"Is everyone alright?" she asked kneeling in the children's midst shooting a glare of hatred towards the panic teens.

"I think so ma'am" Steve's look like said. Lilly heard four more yeses before Natasha's fan girls stepped forward, her eye had started to swell and there was large cut on her forehead. Lilly turned to the boys "Okay you five need to go back to your parents, or better yet go home. I'll take you." she said turning to Natasha's impersonator.

"Wait who are you?" Clint's doppelgänger said pulling on her sleeve.

"Hawkeye calls me Chaos." she told him with a wink and a small smile.

"You know Hawkeye?" The boys eyes widened he couldn't have been more than eight years old, and Lillianna could almost feel herself being elevated on his really cool people scale.

"Yeah now run along" He scurried off and Lillianna stood taking the little girls hand and glancing back to where the teenagers had vanished. "where was the last place you saw your parents?" The girl pointed towards the opposite side of the crowd closest to the stand where Tony was making some kind of speech "alright, come on" she pulled the girl closer to her and started walking trying not visibly limp.

"Oh my! Susan what happened!" A tall dark haired woman ran towards them as they neared the stage. She was obviously on the mayors staff; she looked very professional and gave Lillianna a questioning look and she wrapped her arms around her child who had suddenly found a voice and was telling a wild tale about how chaos had fought off the protesters.

"I stopped some stupid teenagers from stoning your daughter and her friends. You should take her home and get her cleaned up as soon as you can, there might still be glass in her forehead."

"I will. Thank you so much" The woman said as she pulled her daughter tighter to her. Lillianna turned to walk away when the little girl yelled

"Wait! You told George that you knew Hawkeye. Do you know the Black Widow too?" Lillianna chuckled.

"yeah, she and I are tight." Lillianna replied giving the miniature a confidential wink, and smiling.

"MOM! She knows the Widow!" The girl was bouncing up and down with excitement "I want to be just like her when I grow up. She's amazing!" the girl seemed braver here with her mom. "I saw her on the news. She was like... And… then… pow…" during each break she would do a spy move and shoot imaginary targets with a finger gun. She was so cute that Lillianna came up with an idea.

"Wait here." Lillianna ran over to the side of the stage and motioned to Natasha. She got more than she bargained for as Clint walked over two.

"What's up, something wrong?" Clint looked at her worriedly.

"No I just found Nat's biggest fan." Lillianna pointed towards the little girl and her mother who had just been joined by Clint's fan George with an older looking man in tow. Then she gave a quick synopsis of the protester incident which brought looks of disgust to the faces of both spies.

"Well lets go meet her" Natasha smiled and after checking to see if anyone was watching they both jumped off the stage.

"Looks like your fanboy showed up too Clint" Lillianna teased as the trio walked over. When the children noticed them their eyes went wide, but after a second both put on grim faces and attempted to imitate their idols every move, critiquing each other and looking altogether foolish.

"They are so adorable." Natasha gasped as she crouched down in front of her miniature, Susan, brushing a stray strand of hair from the girls face. Clint knelt in front of George.

"Nice bow. How good a shot are you?" Clint teased, nodding toward the toy bow and full quiver slung over the boys shoulder, smiling widely.

"I'm alright, I guess. No where near as good as you. They say you can hit a fly on a wall two football fields away, even with a crosswind." The boy was starting to get less nervous, and more excited.

"Well I don't know about that," Natasha said elbowing Clint. "He hurt himself just bending down to tie his shoes once. Natasha teased winking at her miniture, who laughed.

"See George I told you The Black Widow is so much cooler" she crossed her arms and tried to look smug but only succeeded in raising her cuteness factor by about ten.

"Hey I could tell you stories about Natasha's incompetence till the cows came home. And that was one time Nat, seriously."

"Yeah, and she is never ever going to let you live it down." Lilly chuckled.

"See Susan, Hawkeye is just as cool-" Suddenly the ground shook. Everyone turned to look at the platform where the mayor and four Avengers were crawling up out of a pile of debris.


End file.
